Alone
by Leanansidhe1228
Summary: Sarah learns that all things worth living for can be taken away in the blink of an eye... or so she thinks.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Labyrinth or any of its characters. Don't sue.

He peered into her mind, her deepest thoughts, wondering why she was so unhappy. After all, she had chosen to go back to that life she had lead before he came along. He grinned, knowing exactly why. He had seen the crash through his crystal ball. He had been watching her ever since she had left him. He loved her. He would have given her the world. He'd have given her the universe and more if she had asked for it. Anything for her. But she chose to leave him. Now she sat in the church, crying, heartbroken, alone and all because she had to leave.

After watching her image through the crystal ball for a while, his sardonic grin began to turn to a frown. His sympathy for her, the one who had broken his heart, overwhelmed him. He could no longer stand to watch her cry. He shattered the crystal against the wall across his throne room. All of the goblins around him fell silent.  
"Leave me!", he commanded. "Go on! Go about your business elsewhere!"  
All of the goblins quietly left the throne room, knowing Jareth's incredible power and fearing it. If they so much as thought about disobeying him, he would unleash his wrath upon them.

When all of the goblins had left the room, he covered his face with his hand and sighed. He laid draped over his throne, one leg dangling over the edge and the other over the arm of the stone chair.  
He knew he had to do something, but what? How could he help her?  
"Don't be ridiculous.", he whispered to himself. "She left you. She could never have feelings for you."  
Still, even as he pondered over these words, he had an ache in his heart for her. He had a strong urge to help her. To hold her and dry her tears. To make everything alright.

Sarah walked into her large, two-story, empty house. It wasn't the same without the rest of her family. They were all she had. Her step-mother, her father, her little brother of only three years. She was old enough to live on her own. Besides, the house had been willed to her. She was the sole survivor of the car crash that had claimed the lives of her family. It hurt her to know that they were gone and it hurt even more when she realized that she was alone.

She went up the stairs and was about to go into her room when the open door of her brother's room made her stop. She went inside and saw Lancelot lying on Toby's little bed. She picked him up and hugged him close to her as she began to cry again. She let her legs give way beneath her and sat on Toby's bed.

Suddenly a glint caught her eye. She stopped crying and set Lancelot back on the bed. She got up, curiosity reeling through her. She walked across the floor to the object that was producing the shimmer. When she picked it up and looked at it, she realized that it was a crystal. Her breath caught in her throat and she dropped it onto the floor. It rolled, landing at the feet of the tall, shadowy figure that hadn't been there a minute ago. He stepped out of the shadows of the dark room and into the moonlight.

"Jareth, what are you doing here!", she growled at him, in no mood to deal with the man who had nearly taken her brother a couple of years before. _'Not that it matters now,'_ she thought, bitterly.

"I have come to offer my sympathies."

"I don't believe you," she told him, suspiciously.

"Oh, you don't? But deep down inside, you want to believe me," he cooed in a mock of a soothing voice.

"How would you know?" she asked, defiantly.

Jareth flashed a jeering grin.

"Get out of my head! Things are already bad enough around here! I don't need a burden like you to add to it!" Sarah shouted, her eyes beginning to tear up.

"What makes me such a burden to you?" he asked, walking up with his usual, taunting gait.

"I don't know. Could it be that you tried to take me brother from me?" she asked, snidely.

"Don't you blame me for your wishes, Sarah. You're the one who brought it on."

"Just get out," Sarah hissed. "I've had enough for one day," she informed him, tears falling from her eyes.

Jareth walked up to her, reaching his hand out to brush the tears from her face. "You really think I'm merely here to bring you trouble?"

"I don't know," Sarah said. "I've never seen any part of you that wasn't trouble. It's kind of hard to believe that you would dare to go so far as to help anyone."

Jareth gave what she's said a moment of thought, then gave a nod of admittance. He took her hands and led her to the edge of the bed, motioning for her to sit down, then sat beside her. "Sarah, can I tell you a secret? And be aware, you are the only person this secret has ever gotten out to."

Sarah looked at him and nodded.

"To be the king that I am, I must be cruel. If I was not cruel, I would not get an ounce of obedience. But it is all merely an act."

"My step-mom and my dad never had to be cruel to get us to obey."

"Yes, but your family is an entirely different story. Anyways, the point is, I am not always cruel. I do not wish to be cruel to you. I—" he gulped, then shook his head.

Sarah rose her eyebrows. "You," she prodded.

"I love you."

"You," she tried to prod again, finding it difficult to believe that he'd just said that.

"Love you," he told her, staring into her eyes.

She didn't want to believe him, but there was a strange look of sincerity in his eyes. A single tear rolled down her face and Jareth gently brushed it away with his thumb.

He didn't like to see her hurting, but it would have to be her choice to come back with him to his castle. He couldn't make her do anything. She had beaten him at his own game and he knew that.

"You truly love me?", she asked.

"More than anything," he responded, brushing a strand of hair from her face.

"Than would you be willing to do me a favor?"

"Go on," he said, cautiously.

"Would you kill me? Take me out of this pain?"

"Sarah, be careful what you wish for," he warned her.

"You don't have any idea what it's like to be the only one left. I have no one. You can't possibly know what it's like when you've spent your whole life with your family and suddenly they're gone. I can't stay on this earth any longer knowing that I'm doomed to be alone."

Jareth reached out and pulled Sarah to him. "You have no idea, Love. I know more about loneliness than you think," he whispered in her ear, his tone of voice sympathetic. He held her there for a while, letting her cry, wondering how in all of the worlds she had managed to move his heart so much that he couldn't even keep his normal mask of arrogance and superiority in place when he was around her. He had been unaware that anyone could ever touch him that deeply.  
After a moment, Jareth caught a thought running through Sarah's mind that scared the living daylights out of him. _'Oh, lords. This is more serious than I thought. She won't come of her own will and she's really thinking about killing herself. I suppose I have no choice. I have to show her that there is something worth living for.' _Unfortunately, to go about doing that, he would have to kidnap her. Usually unacceptable, but he felt that he had good enough reason to make it acceptable, just this once.

"Shhhhh.", he said, softly, soothingly as he held her close to him. He produced a crystal and dropped it on the floor at their feet. The banging sound of the crystal as it hit the floor startled Sarah and she flinched and pulled away from Jareth.  
She gasped when she realized that she was no longer in her home. She was in a cold, stone throne room.

"What do you think you're doing!" she screamed at him.

"Saving you from yourself," he explained.

"I don't need you to save me from myself. Did I ask you to save me? No! This time, I didn't make a wish to be brought here so I demand that you take me back right now! Either take me back or grant the wish I did give you!"

"I'm sorry, my dear. I'm afraid I cannot do that. I cannot grant your wishes with you in this state of mind. I am truly sorry, but I brought you here to keep you under a close watch to keep you from doing anything that you may regret in the end."

Sarah wailed an agonizing sound and stormed up the stairs of Jareth's castle, not exactly knowing where they would take her and not really caring. She found herself in his maze of stairs that would take her from landing to landing without ever really leading anywhere. Wandering aimlessly didn't bother her in the least, though. She just needed time to think.

She reached the top of one staircase and walked out to the edge of the platform that ended it. She stood there, teetering on the edge as she contemplated for a moment. There was another staircase running just below her. If she fell down head first, chances were she would either break her neck or hit her head so bad that it would kill her. A strange look came to her eyes and a twisted grin appeared on her face. She let herself teeter over the edge and felt herself plummeting head first towards the sharp edges of the staircase, feeling herself fill with a strange joy. _'My release.'_ Suddenly, she stopped in mid-air. She didn't understand why. Slowly, she began to descend toward the floor of the room, leaving her nowhere to jump from. Once she landed safely on the floor, Jareth appeared in front of her.

"This was your doing!" she exclaimed, her voice coming out in an icy growl.

"Don't you see? This is exactly why you need to be watched."

"I told you to stay out of this! I'll do what I want with my life and you are not to interfere!"

Jareth could see a fire in her eyes that he'd never seen before. She was so angry at him that she looked like she would kill him where he stood. And she undoubtedly would have if she wasn't so set on killing herself first. "You're right," he told her.

"What?" Sarah said in disbelief.

"I said that you are right. You can do whatever you wish to with your life. Of course, suicide has more to do with death than with life, so that is where the line is drawn."

"Once there is nothing left to make life worth living, it should be ended. I should have died with them! I wish to God I had! Then I wouldn't be so alone."

"How can I prove to you that I love you?" he questioned. He had meant to keep it as a question within his own mind to ponder over. He didn't realize he'd asked it out loud until Sarah looked at him curiously. He wished he could take it back immediately. It had not been something that she had needed to hear at this time.

"Why do you keep saying things like that?", she asked him, frustration showing clearly through her voice.

"Because it's true. I love you, Sarah. I just wish there was some way I could prove it to you. And, if I remember correctly, love _is_ something worth living for."

Sarah shook her head in contempt, turned her back on him, and walked away.

Jareth sighed in exasperation. _'Why does she have to be so difficult?"_ he screamed in his mind as he rushed to the throne room.

Sarah wandered around the castle, not really going anywhere. She'd heard a commotion in the throne room, but had thought nothing of it. The goblins were probably going about their usual business, smashing things and just, overall, destroying the palace.  
Then, she heard a really awful noise coming from the throne room and thought that it might not be nothing after all. She paused for a moment with slight indecision, then decided that it would be a good idea to get in there and find out what the hell was going on, just to satisfy her curiosity, if nothing else. She ran down the confusingly twisted corridors, following the sounds.

Finally, she reached the door to the throne room. She peered around the corner and saw Jareth hurl a crystal ball against the far wall of the room. Her curiosity grew at this point. She had no clue what could make him so angry. She saw him take a deep, steadying breath and summon up another crystal. He stared into it a moment before speaking.

"Ordell, my brother, how are you?" he asked, a frightening amount of cheer in his tone. He was acting strange. Sarah didn't understand what could bring on mood-swings like this. Stress, maybe? But about what?

"Jareth! You looked older than your years, brother! What ails you?" replied a voice with a little laugh behind it.

" I am in great need of your magic, Ordell."

"Whatever do you need that for?"

"A resurrecting spell."

"Can't you just re-order time like you do?"

"Well, they're not from the underground and it only works on the mortal beings down here."

"What would you want with an above-ground mortal?" Ordell was clearly perplexed. Sarah could hear it in his voice.

"To make her happy. I only want to make her happy. She doesn't believe that I love her and I think I've just found the way to prove it."

"With a resurrecting spell? Who, pray tell, are you resurrecting?"

"Her parents and her little brother."

"You've fallen for a mortal, of all things and, worse yet, one who hasn't even run your labyrinth?" Ordell asked in shock.

"She's the one who beat it. Come on, Ordell. You have to help me."

Ordell sighed in thought. "I hate to say it, Jareth, but you haven't exactly had the best luck with relationships."

"Come on, Ordell. I really love this one. I just can't stand to see her in so much pain anymore."

Ordell sighed. "Alright. I will help you. Expect me there tomorrow with the rising of the sun."

"How can I repay you?" Jareth asked, relief and gratitude flowing in his voice.

"Just don't screw this one up." Sarah could tell he was smiling. She could hear the amusement in his voice.

She saw Jareth smile back at the crystal, which vanished immediately after. She also saw him pick up a goblin and hug it so tightly that its eyes almost bugged out. Aside from being suffocated, the goblin looked incredibly surprised-- frightened, even.

Sarah chose this time to step carefully into the room. Jareth was now twirling the goblin in circles and stopped short when he saw her enter the room. He gently set the goblin on the floor, which gratefully ran away as fast as it could.

"You heard all of that, didn't you?" he asked.

Sarah nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. "You can really do this?"

"No, Love. I can't. My brother, however, can. I've been calling my family all morning. Either they didn't have the power or were still angry at me over some miniscule argument and wouldn't take my call."

Sarah glanced over at the far wall again, where she saw a huge pile of crystal shards.

"You really care?"

Jareth took Sarah's hands in his, kissing them. "Of course I do. Never doubt that, Sarah. I would do anything for you."

Sarah fell into his arms, her tears soaking his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her and held her, happy to know that her tears were no longer tears of sorrow, but tears of joy and relief. He didn't think he could stand it if she were hurting much longer.


End file.
